Chickadee Home Nest: May 2013

Thursday, May 9, 2013

The Nook and the Old Ladder

We have lived in this home for 7+ years. For 7+ years I’ve tried to figure out what to do with this “nook” in our master bedroom. Here it is, as it was up until a few weeks ago:

Love the teal shadow boxes, the teal and silvery lamp, the Ballard Design Eiffel Tower full of family memories. And the Norman Rockwell has tons of sentimental value, but…not here. I needed something with some dimension to fill the space between my MIL’s writing desk and the wall.

And, for MANY MORE than the 7+ years we’ve lived here, “we” have had an old ladder that we jammed into our car and drove several hours with it wedged between the front seats—happy memory :) (well, for me, anyway). And for all those years I’ve had a nagging thought about what to do with it—other than keep it in the basement with the tons of other ~~stuff~~ precious belongings we have stored down there, including the theatre seat I just brought up and painted with AS Duck Egg and posted here. If you’d like to take a peak at our basement, you can see it all here.

So finally, for some reason, inspiration hit me: The nook and the ladder!

I wanted to hang pictures from it, so first I added eye hooks, being careful to turn them with pliers in an effort [read: not always successfully] attempt to not break them…

You’ll notice that the rungs aren’t flat, so nothing could be set on them, and I wasn’t about to try my hand at cutting flat boards and attaching them….no sireee…tooooo much trouble!

I attached the hooks at the top and bottom of each rung, planning to attach each picture at the top and bottom, with twine. No go. They didn’t hang right; they were angled back.

Now what?! I was bound and determined to:

Fill the nook;
Use the ladder.

And this is what the Mother of Invention came up with:

For the first time in 7+ years (are you getting the drift here…it was SEVEN-PLUS years of frustration!!), I am finally happy with the odd nook (well, except that I’m not completely sold on the two pictures on the right wall being there).

The ladder now “frames” four pictures of our favorite subjects—our baby chickadees!

To add a bit of of depth, and texture, (okay, and to use the hooks I’d taken the time to put in), I still used twine to tie sloppy, casual bows.

But I’m still wondering about one thing: Now that I’ve painted the theatre seat in Annie Sloan Duck Egg…yes, you know where I’m headed…I’m wondering if a bit of that would look good on the ladder too. I already have that color going there, so I’m just not sure. What do you think? Yes? No? Emphatic YES? Emphatic NO?

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From my nest to yours, ~Zuni

Monday, May 6, 2013

ASCP Duck Egg Theatre Seat

Annie Sloan paint to the rescue!

We bought this theatre seat at least 20 years ago, and except for a brief period when we had it in use in the family room, it’s always been in the basement gathering dust, but I never wanted to part with it.

It’s such a versatile piece, because the seats flip up and the legs close, like a triple folding chair, so it can easily be put aside if need be. And for a long time I’ve wanted something narrow for this spot in the screened porch that would allow for extra seating…then a giant light bulb popped up over my head! And there was a voice, too! It said, “Bring the theatre seat up,” and in a whisper it said, “P-a-i-n-t i-t!” What?! Paint something that old?! Won’t I be ruining its value (whatever it is, which I don’t really know)?!

Ummmm…the mental tug-a-war didn’t last long. I got up Saturday morning—a beautiful, sunshiny day—determined to paint it. Just like that. Out came the ASCP in what else??? Duck Egg!

Ahhh, yes, I’m very happy with it.

What do you think? Did I make a mistake in painting it? I looked on eBay and Etsy after I painted it :), and they can be a lot pricier than I thought. But I wasn’t planning on selling it, and at least now it’s in use, and I’ve already enjoyed looking out on the porch and seeing it soooooo much, that it’s worth it to me. But I still would like to know from my friends out there—should I have painted it, or am I crazy to have done it? What have you painted regardless of its {monetary} value?

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you’ll leave me a comment to let me know you were here—I read every single one of them! And if you like what you see a lot, maybe you’d like to +1 this post, or pin it on Pinterest too! Thank you!